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  • Racecourse Colliery Hard Hat Tours – Staff & Volunteer places available

    Racecourse Colliery Hard Hat Tours – Staff & Volunteer places available

    On various dates between Wednesday 23 August and Sunday 3 September we’ll be running hard hat tours of the Racecourse Colliery restoration work for our visitors (exact dates and times listed below). The tours will explore the history of the Colliery, the reasons for its restoration and the work involved, what’s been done so far, and what’s still to complete.

    Not only does this keep our visitors involved in our current projects but it allows us to test this type of activity in advance of the new physical developments we will be creating as part of BCLM: Forging Ahead.

    We’d like you, our staff & volunteers to be the first to see the work that is taking place on the Colliery. So, if you fancy replacing a flat cap with a hard hat for half an hour at 9am on Tuesday 22 August, please register your interest via Museum Operations Manager, Jon White.

    Places will be limited to 20 but if we get significant interest then we’ll put on another tour for staff & volunteers at a later date.

    Please wear sensible footwear.

    The tours will take place from the Mine Manager’s Office.

    Visitor tours will be limited to 10 places and will take place at 11am, 1pm & 3pm on the following dates:

    • Wednesday 23 Aug
    • Thursday 24 Aug
    • Friday 25 Aug
    • Monday 28 Aug
    • Saturday 2 Sep
    • Sunday 3 Sep

    More tours are due to take place in the Autumn.

  • Summer 2017: Performance so far

    We’re half way through the Summer Holidays and although not as sunny as we would have liked, this all-important period to date has actually been quite a successful one.

    Visitor numbers for the first three weeks (Saturday 22 July to Sunday 13 August) are at 31,122, that’s bang on the budgeted attendance target and just a few hundred off the same period last year.

    But it’s not just our attendance figures that provide a good read; the number of 4 & 5 star reviews we’re seeing across Tripadvisor and Facebook, is also a testament to the excellent visitor experience that you, our staff & volunteers, provide – as one Tripadvisor reviewer puts it:

    “History is brought to life in a way no lesson or text book could.”

    Our all new Summer Evenings have also proved to be a welcome addition, especially to our Facebook followers (there’s over 87,000 of them now):

    “Enjoyed Friday evening. My little boy managed a full bag of fish & chips all to himself, and it was great to actually get into the bottle and glass pub for a few drinks! A fiver upon entry was a bargain. It’s something we would like to do every Friday evening!”

    We enter the last 3 weeks of the summer holiday period nearly 2% ahead of our visitor attendance budget year to date and ever so slightly ahead (0.2%) of the same point last year….and with fingers crossed for some dry weather!

  • Photography studio open for summer in Doo’s Parlour (Sundays)

    Back in April the VE team had a staff meeting where we asked for ideas for a small project that we had set aside some budget to develop.

    The brief was thus:
    • Aimed at the family audience, interesting for parents with a learning aspect for children
    • Hands on and interactive
    • Not exclusive (i.e. more than one person/family able to take part at a time)

    A number of excellent ideas were put forward including Lucy Elliot and Sheila Chamberlain-Hyatt individually suggesting dress up and photography. Visitors often comment that they miss the old Photography Studio that was a franchise, run in the front Parlour of Doo’s and the recent ‘sharing’ visit to Beamish had whetted the appetite to reintroduce this in the future, running it ourselves when funds became available.

    However, the equipment to actually take and print photographs for the public was slightly out of reach for this year so we decided to take things forward in a more ‘selfie’ type approach.

    Costume was purchased, Dancer’s Men’s Outfitters donated a number of ex-hire suits, a photographers backdrop was sourced and hung and we even received a last minute unexpected donation of an aspidistra!

    The new offer invites visitors to sign up to an appointment on a chalk board on the door. When they arrive they are helped to choose their costume by the ‘Studio Assistant’, played by a member of the Activity Demonstrator team, who then takes photographs of them with their own cameras.

    It was a real team effort to get everything ready and Sheila was the first ‘Studio Assistant’ greeting visitors last weekend. The new activity proved very popular but she did manage to find a couple of quiet minutes to take some sample photos of a couple of familiar faces. The black and white version shows what you can do very easily with your original photo when you get home.

    The studio is open every Sunday until the end of August and will also be open during October half term. We will be recruiting volunteers to try and increase opening during the rest of the year and looking to offer a printed ‘sepia’ photograph offer in 2018.

    Tessa Lovell, Head of Visitor Engagement

  • Peaky Blinders- Volunteers Wanted!

    Peaky Blinders- Volunteers Wanted!

    Staff Volunteering – Peaky Blinders

    Our Peaky Blinders nights are upon us once again and this year we are hosting the event across four evenings, spanning two weekends. Like all of our highly anticipated events, Peaky Blinders is expected to be busy and bustling from start to finish so any help would be gratefully recieved. There are two opportunities available; in the week coming up to the first weekend we would like some help with transforming the site into a place worthy of the Peaky Blinders gang. During the evening events we will need support  across food and drink and  retail and admissions.

    If you are interested in lending a helping hand, please indicate where you would like to volunteer and what times you are available in the forms below. The deadline to sign up is 12 midday on Monday 28th August 2017. Whether for the whole evening or a couple of hours,  we would gladly accept any time you can offer to help make our event a success.

    There are two forms to register interest in volunteering. There is a Peaky Blinders Sign Up form to register interest in volunteering within food and drink or retail and admissions and there is a Peaky Blinders Prep Sign Up form, this is for those that are interested in assisting Jane Allcock during the day with the prep for the evening events and will involve set-dressing. Please ensure that the correct form is completed.

    The Volunteer Team

    Thank you.

    [ninja_form id=7]

    [ninja_form id=8]

     

  • Useful Information – Updated Maintenance Plan

    As you’ll know, each year we set a Planned Maintenance Programme to seek to address issues before they have an impact on the visitor experience and the safe operation of the Museum.  This is just a quick update to let you know what we’ve achieved so far this year:

    Bottle & Glass – rotten floor joists replaced and floor tiles made good.

    Brass Foundry – complete forge rebuild and repairs to electrics and extraction complete.  After completion of the works, a Health and Safety Risk Assessment has allowed the Brass Foundry to return to operational status.

    Footbridge – total replacement of footbridge by the Newcomen Engine.

    The Village – painting of shop frontages and the Penfold Post Box complete.

    Drift Mine – all fire doors replaced in accordance with the Fire Risk Assessment.

    Tram 49 – electrics and roof works completed to allow Tram 49 to return to operational status.  [Tram 49 is currently having its bearings investigated to identify operational issues]

    WI – loose floor tiles fixed.

    Horse Paddock – half of the rotten paddock fencing replaced (with the assistance of students from Wolverhampton College).

  • Useful Information – AEOM Conference Update

    From 21 – 25 August we will be hosting 130 international delegates for the biennial Association of European Open Air Museums Conference.

    Open Air Museum professionals from Europe, Australia, Canada, the US and the UK (including some of our own staff) will be taking part in a variety of workshops, presentations, dinners and guided tours at BCLM and Ironbridge Gorge Museums as they explore the key theme of the Conference, ‘The Resilient, Entrepreneurial Museum and Master Planning.

    The conference sessions taking place here have been added to the Museum-wide calendar and you can find further information about the programme in the Useful Information section of the Documents tab above.

    We look forward to welcoming our international colleagues to BCLM in just a couple of weeks’ time!

  • 2018: A Year of Celebrations – call out for events ideas

    Now we’re in full swing of our Let’s Get Sporty* summer, we’re beginning to turn our attention to how we can make our 2018 Events Programme the best yet and we need your help!

    2018 marks our Museum’s 40th anniversary (since opening to the public for the first time in 1978) and so the events programme will be set within an overarching context for the year of ‘Celebrations’.

    If you would like to see us celebrate something specific as part of our 2018 Events Programme please take the time to complete the Events Proposal Form below. The deadline for submitting completed forms is Noon on Wednesday 23 August. All submitted events proposals will then go to the next meeting of the Events Programming Group on Tuesday 29 August for consideration.

    Thanks in advance for your help.

     

    *Thanks to Rhiannon Adams, Hire & Hospitality Sales Manager for submitting the Sporty-themed idea for 2017’s Events Programme.

     

    [ninja_form id=6]

  • Useful Information – Forging Ahead FAQs

    Useful Information – Forging Ahead FAQs

    In response to some excellent questions that staff and volunteers have been asking about BCLM: Forging Ahead, you’ll now find a Forging Ahead Frequently Asked Questions document in the ‘Useful Information’ section of the ‘Documents’ tab above.

    This will be updated as more questions come in but if you’d rather ask your own questions in person don’t forget that Lisa Cowley, Deputy Chief Executive (Visitor Engagement & Operations) is available on the last Wednesday of every month from 5.30pm – 6.30pm in the offices above Hartills. These sessions have now also been added to the Museum Calendar.

  • Museums Association Conference 2017

    Museums Association Conference – 16-18 November 2017

     

    The MA conference takes place in Manchester this year with a packed programme of events across the course of the three days.

     

    We are offering 2 staff the opportunity to attend this, with all travel and accommodation provided. All you need to do is complete an application and provide us with some information as to how you think this will be of benefit to you in your role here at BCLM.

     

    More information is available here.

     

    http://www.museumsassociation.org/news/27062017-manchester-2017-conference-guide-published?dm_i=2VBX,HMND,4AXWPV,1U20S,1

     

    If you are interested in attending, please complete the application form (the link is below)  and return to [email protected] by 5pm on Thursday 10 August 2017. Staff will be selected based on their application and informed w/c 14 August 2017.

     

    Museums Association Conference 2017    Application Form 

     

  • Deaf Cafe: Sat 29 July

    Emma Cartwright will be hosting our next Deaf café session  this Sat 29th July between 2.00-3.30pm.  She will be there taking us through our paces as we broaden our vocabulary in British Sign language.

    We will be exploring sport as a theme which informs our summer programme “Let’s get sporty” .

    You will have a chance to go into the museum and practice your BSL skills in our buildings, shops and outdoor spaces.

    If you wish to attend, email: glenis.[email protected] to reserve your place.

    Emma will meet you in the Rolf street café at the 2.00pm for light refreshments at the start of the session.

    Beginners welcome!